Water: the liquid and fountain of life, humans, plants, animal and universe.
Water…
Back to adulthood, a crucial basic necessity. This is an area I am deeply passionate about and could talk hours on end or write a whole novel about. Well, when we moved to Star neighborhood in 2000, we had no water supply and would mostly depend on borrowing water from ‘neighbors’ -they were 1km far from where we lived.
The only means of transport was bicycles then. In context in 2000, this town was fairly young, a military town, then referred to as a desert town, houses were very few, to date we have never had town service ‘matatus’ it is a small town with rapid growth and expansion though. Back to our story, bicycles were the main means of transport and they were found in the town centre, since we lived in the outskirts, we had to look for alternative ways to carry the water we borrowed, so my parents bought a wheelbarrow to help in ferrying the water.
Water connection was so expensive, remember I said that our house was the first to be located in this zone? My parents had to save up in order to pay for the connection. Reprieve came in late 2001 when we were able to pay for the City Council’s water supply and had piped water in our lot.
Previously I had mentioned my dad’s love for trees and fruits, well he was able to have his tree nursery since water was available, we also planted a variety of fruits: mangoes, oranges, passion fruits, pawpaw, bananas, avocado, guavas and loquats. My mom then realized that she too could actualize her dream and added cabbages, pumpkins and kales as part of the garden. Our home had too much nature, from trees to grass to fruits. We also started poultry farming and had chickens and turkeys for our own consumption.
Water supply was on a daily basis and our garden flourished yielding so much that we would always have surplus to give to our kind neighbors who helped us out during our water crisis days.
All was well but as the population increased, water supply was minimal but we always had a share of the ‘small’ water so it was no cause of alarm.
In 2008, after the post-election violence in Kenya, our town was mostly the solace for most internally displaced persons, the government erected tents for camping and so the population was booming. Population increase fractures systems that were initially planned for a certain number of persons, so we only had supply on select days, four days in a week; that served us well as we had reservoirs.
As years progressed, water was rationed to specific times of the day, this went on until 2017. In 2018, a notice was issued that water supply would only be 2 days in a week (Tuesdays and Thursday). During this time home owners built rental units in their spaces increasing the population thus strain on water.
Fast forward to currently, we no longer have tap water, on the conventional system, water never reaches our lot, so we had to dig up and collect water from underneath where the pipe supply is.
It functions as a shallow borehole. Also, our garden has only an orange tree which through time has developed water resilience- no more orchard like it was during the green era.
A planner’s perspective? Advocacy. Whenever we raise our concerns, on the first day when water is supplied, the pressure is increased and we have tap water, the next time we are back to default and have to fetch water from underneath. It got to a point where it was draining to complain every week, so the immediate course of action was to invest on a large capacity water tank, surround the roof with gutters and be full time rain collectors, whether it rains or not, a measure is in effect. What of our neighbours who are choosing to stay around the rental properties where rent is cheaper because of no water supply? Political goodwill comes into play.
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